Month: May 2016

My emotions are a freaking mess right now. Because of this book, this amazing, emotional, tension filled read. Ahh!

I only purchased this book today while out shopping with my parents and within a few hours of purchase, I’ve read it. And the truth is: I’m not disappointed at all. I really don’t know how to write this review up because i’m literally speechless. Even my cat thought I was being mad. But here goes.

Maddy, Rob and Ben met for the first time during their childhood when Maddy first moved to the local area of Peaswood. Together, their friendship is an unique bond that continues into adulthood. We learn and follow their moves every step of the way and learn secrets about all of the characters within the novel that just makes you, the reader want to stay on and discover just what lurks on the other side. The opening part starts at Maddy’s wedding and then over the course of the novel, flashes back to the past. I love the city of Bristol which was mentioned a lot within the novel as both Maddy and Ben attend University there.

Gorgeous read whilst sitting outside in the garden under a bright sunset and with a cold drink of cloudy lemonade in your hand. This was my first novel that I’ve read that is written by Giovanna, I eagerly look forward to reading Billy and Me plus her other novels as well.

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I would like to thank the publishers Pan Macmillian and the author Harriet Reuter Hapgood for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The Square Root of Summer is set in the seaside town of Holksea and follows the experiences and life of student Gottie who experiences some bereavement after her grandfather Grey passes away. The story takes place the summer after Grey’s death in which Gottie looks back at the guy Jason who she fell in love with at Grey’s funeral but this could prove distracting when an old friend Thomas moved back to the area after he originally moved out to Canada with his family.

I felt that the story title and plot looked incredibly interesting and for the first half of the book, I felt connected with the characters and could discover Gottie’s obsession with wormholes and physics equations but by the second half of the book, I found the story pace to be a bit disjointed and felt that the physics equations that were frequently mentioned within the story took away a bit of the enjoyment I had from the first half of the book. I could predict what would happen at the end quite early on and felt a little disappointed after a lot of interesting things surrounding the characters within The Square Root of Summer.

I loved the whole premise with the time capsules. And now I feel more determined to make one of my own.

For any science lovers, this is the story for you. But my overall feelings at the end were mostly of disappointment. I would read more books by this author.

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I won a signed copy of this book via a Maximum Pop Books giveaway a couple of months ago and on tweeting my excitement over winning the book, the author Tommy Wallach saw and we had a lovely conversation, thanks for making my day and month. This was a fairly quick read for me, I finished reading it in just over an hour. The story is set in San Francisco about a boy called Parker Santé whose father dies in an accident. Because of this, he hasn’t spoken a word for five years. Instead, he communicates through writing and in this story, he starts writing in his 105th journal. Instead of staying in school to work hard to attain College places, he bunks off and crashes around hotels.

In these hotels, he observes the various guests and staff, sometimes turning to stealing just to help make ends meet. In one of these stealing situations, he meets a girl Zelda Toth, a very mysterious character who doesn’t seem to be quite as things seem to be. Together, both will embark on an adventure that involves writing stories, Halloween celebrations and hidden truths.

There are a number of questions and answers that take place within the story. The ending I think was balanced off perfectly. Without wanting to reveal any spoilers, I personally felt somewhat satisfied with how the story ended. I felt a mixture of emotions: Sadness, Joy and Anger. I felt the same type of anticipation I got from when I started reading Paper Towns by John Green. It has the same vibe somewhat from it and because I liked Paper Towns, I liked this book too!

The humor in the story is extremely funny at points but there are also serious things to take into consideration. It was quite well-written, I feel that the length of the story itself should be longer. Contemporary is not my favourite genre at the moment so this final star rating may seem a bit harsh. However, I generally had no serious problems with the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes Paper Towns or any other stories by John Green or David Levithan.

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(This was a story featured on an old blog post of mine from back around February time. It was number 1 in my most excited for adult fiction reads of 2016!)

Jack and Grace look like a loved up couple but once you start immersing yourself within the reality that surrounds their relationship in Behind Closed Doors, you would debunk that happy theory altogether.

A debut novel and psychological thriller, this story was certainly designed to scare and I as a reader was totally scared out of my wits. In every corner of the novel, action and tension just kept on building. We see the lies, the betrayal, the hurt and the sacrifices made by both Grace and Jack. Jack is a rich man, a lawyer who is famous for the cases that he works on day in, day out and Grace who used to work for Harrods buying fruit over from South America. Grace’s younger sister Millie has Down’s syndrome and I feel that her character portrayal’s was realistic. Set between Thailand and England, Behind Closed Doors looks at the darker side of relationships. The unhealthy side.

I’m still shaking after just finishing reading it, psychological thrillers are designed to scare your mind and make you question the actions undertaken by people. A thrilling read, that will mess with your emotions.

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DNF at Page 13 (But I have flicked through the book beforehand, reasons are stated below!)

I am disappointed.

So, so, so disappointed.

This was a book selected for the local YA book club that I attend and Fantasy is my favourite genre at this moment in time so this did fit the bill for what I felt like reading. On the evening of our last meeting when we got the book copies, we were all warned this was a high MG and low YA and on having a flick through, I knew deep down that I was going to struggle with reading this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan of all of the adult thrillers that James Patterson has ever written. His way of writing literally takes my breath away and before you can say the word “Thriller”, you are sat on the edge of your seat because an epic plot twist just dropped.

On the basis of me flicking through the book to see what the writing style and plot looked like, I then tried to start reading it but by the first few pages of solid reading, I felt rather bored with what I was reading. The start for me felt flat and because I found the start flat, the rest of the story for me personally probably wasn’t going to be my type of read.

I did stop reading very early on and on reading some of the reviews left by Goodreads members, I have to agree that as a huge fan of James Patterson’s adult thrillers, I expected a huge thrill of a ride and sadly… was left in the dust.

For any MG readers looking for something simple to read, I think you would like this one. But for any hardcore Fantasy readers, I wouldn’t recommend this book.

(Because this is a DNF, I don’t give DNF books a star rating!)

Follow me on Twitter: marriedtobooks3

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I was sent an ARC copy of You Know Me Well by the lovely team at MyKindaBook and Macmillan publishers for read and review. And for those who love reading YA LGBT reads, you won’t be disappointed with this one.

High school students Katie and Mark meet one night in the heart of San Francisco but it’s just a friend thing. Katie has a crush on a girl named Violet and Mark has fallen head over heels for his best friend Ryan. Throughout the San Francisco setting, we witness the adventure that both of them experience together during Pride Week, what being in love feels like and how you reveal to another person that you love them. The alternating viewpoints between Katie and Mark provided a clear picture of what either of them were thinking as well as what was happening within the story. As a fan of poetry, I was pleased to see some poems written and spoken by young teens at a poetry open mic session scene that took place a few chapters from the end. It was a nice way to express creativity throughout.

I’m a huge fan of both authors and overall, really enjoyed You Know Me Well. The ending rounded things off nicely but the story plot does tug at your heart strings. For anyone looking for a contemporary romantic read, this is the book for you.

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I would like to thank Maximum Pop Books, the publishers HarperCollins and the author Kimberly McCreight for sending me a copy of this book from a Twitter giveaway as a prize. Here are my honest thoughts.

It was quite long in length but I read it all in one sitting in just a couple of hours. The mystery thriller feel and the cover really help to showcase the adventures that take place throughout the story. This book is the first in a planned trilogy and at this moment in time, I will be looking forward to purchasing the next book when it is released. The story revolves around the main character Wylie who discovers that her best friend Cassie goes missing a short while after both of them had a fallout with each other. Wylie starts to receive some cryptic text messages supposedly from Cassie but when they start to hint some strange occurrences, Wylie is on the case to track down her friend as well as overcome the struggles with her anxiety.

I have anxiety just like the main character Wylie which for me meant that I could relate to her character more out of all of the others. The twists and turns that took place throughout really made my heart race, I was interested to find out what happened next. Betrayals, secrets and danger. What more could you ask for? The Outliers ticks all of the boxes for me. I also was able to visualise the scenes within the novel. I could totally see this becoming a movie one day.